Emerald Guardians
by shells210
Summary: Side story to Emerald Justice. Catherine isn't sure what to think when her cousin starts talking about Jack Frost and the Boogeyman. Well, if she has a magic ring why can't Santa Clause have magic snow globes?
1. Chapter 1

**I watched Rise of the Guardians on Easter and had to write this afterwards. No spoilers for Emerald Justice but if might make more sense if you read that first. **

**These chapters are going to be short but there are a lot of them already written. **

**I only own C.G.**

* * *

**Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten. **

**-David Ogden Stiers**

* * *

Pennsylvania was not a place she had ever imagined going with her brother. With anyone, actually. But there they were for Christmas break, sitting at a table in front of his, their, cousins, Jamie and Sophie, and their aunt Marie.

It wasn't like it was the first time they had been there, or the first time she had met the two. They had spent Thanksgiving there before and a few times the family of three had flown out to California to visit them during the summer, though not often. Marie didn't like the idea of aliens attacking her kids.

_Ironic, _Catherine thought, glancing out the window towards the woods, _That the first place I ever saw them was here. _

"Cath!" Jamie called from across the table, snapping her brown eyes to his.

"What did you say, kid?" she asked, turning to face them all again. A smile slid onto her face even as darkness clung to her heart. Three doors down her mother sat at a table with her father and another brown haired little girl.

"I asked if you wanted to go skating tomorrow. Sheesh, pay attention," the boy demanded. Catherine smiled at him indulgently.

"Sure, sure, I'll come. But just for a while, I want to go into town and see what's so great about Burgess your mom moved you out here."

A lie.

Hal interrupted, "Maybe if your mom lets you after she goes to be boring I can take you up?" the question was directed at Marie, accompanied by two sets of brown puppy dog eyes.

Catherine could physically see her will deteriorate in the face of such opposition.

"If you promise to be careful…"

"We will!" the boys chorused. Catherine rolled her eyes.

"What about you Soph, you wanna come shopping with me? I'm sure we can find you a pretty coat while we're there."

The five year old smiled widely at Catherine, revealing a gap in her lower teeth. "Yeah!"

Catherine smiled, sitting back and joining in the conversation once more. It was fine, this family was hers now, and she was theirs. As much as she longed to see her mother and father again she would survive if she didn't, and really it would only do more harm than good in the long run, especially for them.

After all, they might be her parents, but she was no longer their daughter.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

* * *

**Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying. **

**-Martin Luther**

* * *

It was so cold in Burgess you'd think it was in Alaska. Catherine took one look outside the window of the room she was splitting with Sophie and stuck her ring right on, willing the uniform to take on what she liked to call I-can-survive-deep-space-but-you-don't-know-that-so-I'll-pretend-I-have-a-parka-on mode.

Once she was settled in a green coat white jeans tucked into black boots she walked out of the room, her temperature control clothes keeping her nice and perfect. Not that she wasn't always, but…

"Are you ready to go?" Jamie asked, practically bouncing over to her. He had two pairs of ice skates in hand, one that was his and one that his mom was letting his cousin use.

The girl nodded, smiling down at him. "Yep. Lead the way, kid."

Jamie was perhaps the only eleven year old she'd even met that didn't object to being called a kid. Instead he just turned around and ran out the door. Catherine waved at her brother before going after him, catching up quickly and falling into an easy lope at his side.

The boy led her out of town, into the woods that bordered Burgess. Shadows danced in the winter sun, light shone off of piles of snow. Catherine breathed in deeply, remembering the last time she'd been in those woods.

_The dogs barking was cut off in a sudden whimper. Confusion clouded her face before something primal grabbed hold of her heart. Fear, terror, understanding. Death. The darkness wrapped around her, being she had never seen before loomed closer. Crimson colored the snow. _

_She screamed. _

Her breath fogged in front of her face and the memory fell away.

Catherine warned, "We don't get much ice in Coast. I don't have much practice."

Jamie smiled back at her, taking a seat at the edge of the frozen pond he'd lead her to strap on the skates. Catherine sat next to him, doing the same before she pushed herself up, keeping her balance carefully. Jamie wasted no time flying off onto the ice.

"This better not break," Catherine muttered quietly before pushing forwards.

She hadn't been lying. Coast City hadn't seen real snow in over twelve years. Lucky for her she spent a good amount of time in Central and had learned to ice skate out of simple necessity. The blades cut neatly into the ice under her feet, leaving a trail to show where she'd been.

Even with limited practice the eighteen year old was still graceful on the ice, gliding along behind her little cousin in circles and figure eights. Jamie was good, spinning on the toe of his skate as well as any professional. The ice creaked a few times, prompting Catherine to call a warning to the boy to be careful.

He'd just laughed, carefree, and proclaimed, "Jack Frost won't let us fall through."

Jack Frost.

Jamie seemed to have an obsession with him. Had for the past three years. Catherine shrugged and went with it. Let the kid believe. It wasn't like it was a bad thing. Superman, after all, still believed in Santa Clause.

Sometimes Catherine was jealous of them, of Clark and Jamie and Sophie, of Artemis even and her steadfast belief in the Sandman. They could believe without seeing in things that brought hope and wonder and delight. Could put faith in these myths and trust totally that they were true.

Catherine couldn't do that. She could, if she gave up on years of hard pounded reality, something that would not happen.

Magic was real, there was no denying that. The supernatural too. She'd seen it, _she_ _knew_. But she still didn't believe in things that were easily explained otherwise. Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and Jack Frost were all easy enough to explain. Parents for the first to, nature for the last one.

How nice would it be to believe though?


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3.**

* * *

**I used to get the feeling, and sometimes I still get it, that I was fooling somebody - I don't know who or what - maybe myself. I have feelings some days where there are scenes with a lot of responsibility, and I'll wish, 'Gee, if only I had been a cleaning woman.' **

**-Marilyn Monroe**

* * *

Sophie was adamant that they get a thank you card for Santa Clause. Catherine thought it was adorable so bought it for the girl and let her doodle with gel pens while she wrote down the girls dictations on what it should say from them in straight letters and soft strokes.

Along with the card they also got presents for the rest of the family. From Catherine came a book of Atlantean myths for Jamie, a cook book for Hal (A running gag, neither of them could boil water properly), a scarf for Marie, and necklace like Black Canary wore because she was Sophie's favorite superhero (Catherine tried not to be offended).

Sophie was bought a big foot action figure for her brother, a plastic air plane for her cousin, and was going to make a card for her mother. Catherine pretended not to notice when she tried to hide that she was getting a plastic turner ring for her.

The Burgess shopping center only offered a little, but for their purposes, it was enough.

Catherine pretended not to see the family of three laughing in a Starbucks, pretended that her heart didn't hurt seeing them and that the green in her thoughts was still courage instead of envy.

It was Sophie that kept her mind from that darkness, that made sure her light stayed strong.

The little blonde girl dragged her away from the scene and into their own, two cousins running through the ripping wind and solid white to get to the car, laughter and cold coloring their cheeks pink.

So long as she had her family she was fine.

She was always fine.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4.**

* * *

**A cynical young person is almost the saddest sight to see, because it means that he or she has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing. **

**-Maya Angelou**

* * *

"Cath," Jamie asked the next day when they were building a snow man, rolling up the middle part. The older girl hummed, a sign for him to continue, "Do you believe in Santa Clause?"

Without even hesitating the girl shook her head. "Nope. Not really. It's a nice idea, but it doesn't seem real."

"What if I told you he was real?" Jamie asked, only a little suddenly.

Catherine paused in her work, looking over at her little cousin. Her lips pursed and behind her sunglasses she squinted.

"Are you telling me as a kid who still believes in Santa or a boy who knows something for a fact?" she asked at last.

Hope and trepidation warred across his face. "Fact," he said, "I know he's real, I've seen him! I'm not trying to trick you and I'm not crazy or stupid," he added.

Catherine smiled indulgently. "I never said you were, kid. I guess, if you think he's that real…" thousands of children believes, Clark Kent believed, Kara even would swear up and down and now her cousin? "It's possible."

Jamie's face lit up. "You think so!"

"Well yeah," Catherine nodded, "I mean, it doesn't take that long to circumnavigate the planet, and if you take into account the earth's rotation and the amount of children that believe versus the amount that don't and factor in the possibility of a whole year to prepare… It's not likely, but it's entirely possible."

Jamie's grin rivalled the sun. Catherine smiled at him.

"You said you'd met Santa? Tell me about that," she requested several minutes later when they were pounding the carrot in as a nose. Jamie's face lit up.

"Okay, so two years ago he came to my room with the tooth fairy-"

"Why was he with the Tooth fairy?" Catherine interrupted.

"Because Pitch Black stole all her little fairies that get the teeth."

"Pitch Black?" Catherine almost laughed. She'd heard some cliché names in her time but that was up on the list.

"The Boogeyman," Jamie explained, exasperated.

Catherine arched a thin brow. "Haven't heard of him since Nightmare Before Christmas came out. Nightmare Lord, yeah? Shadow on the moon, monster under the bed, thing in the closet?"

Jamie nodded. "Yeah, that's him. Anyway, the Guardians-"

"Guardian?" the first thought she had was arrogant blue smurfs.

"Santa Clause, Toothfairy, Sandman and Jack Frost. Stop interrupting!"

Catherine held up her hands in quiet apology.

"_Like I was saying_, two years ago they showed up in my room 'cause I lost a tooth and they were helping to collect them because Pitch took away the little fairies as part of his master plot."

"Which was what?"

"To make everyone stop believing in the Guardians and believe in him instead. No one had taken him seriously since, like, the dark ages."

Catherine hummed. "Makes sense then."

"Cath!" Jamie cried, looking horrified.

She cocked her head. "What? I'm only saying, his actions make sense. That doesn't make them good, or right."

"He was evil," Jamie insisted.

Catherine cut in, levelling her cousin with a hard look. "Evil is just a word that humans use to make distinctions between right and wrong, what's easy and hard. Evil doesn't exist anymore than good does and to think otherwise is ignorant and close minded."

Jamie floundered. "But, he made nightmares! And tried to kill Sandman!"

"And I kill fish to feed myself. It's the same principal kid."

"No it's not," he insisted stubbornly.

Catherine sighed deeply. Sometimes she really hated kids. She could scarcely remember when she'd been as naïve as they were.

"Okay, fine, he was evil. How dare he want to do what he was made to? What happened when the Guardians tried to stop him?"

Jamie settled once more, still giving her funny looks. "Yeah, they did too. And I got to help! I mean, at first I wasn't even sure if they were real for a while, Pitch crushed all of the Easter eggs and even though I saw them I almost gave up that's when I met Jack!"

Apparently her earlier transgressions had been forgotten. The girl listened intently, leaning forwards from where she had taken to kneeling on the ground. Cold wind blew against the back of her neck and the girl felt her hair stand on end. Someone was watching them. She didn't say anything about it, just smiled and listened to her little cousin.

"And then we stood up to him and then Jack became Guardian!" Jamie finished, his eyes darting over her shoulder before finding Catherine's face again. His expression brightened further, if that was possible.

"Huh," Catherine said at last, "That is pretty cool. You kids kicked some serious Boogeyman butt."

"Yeah! So you believe me?" Jamie asked hopefully.

The girl sat back on her heels, humming softly. "I believe you believe in yourself. I don't know if I believe in Jack Frost or the Easter Bunny though. I don't think they don't exist, I've seen too much crazy stuff in Coast to say that, but I don't like putting faith in what I can't see."

Jamie tilted his head, a frown on his face. "You used to believe in them though didn't you? When you were a kid?"

Catherine's smile turned somewhere between bitter and sad. "The last time I believed in any of your Guardians I was Sophie's age."

Jamie's eyes went wide with shock. "Four?" he repeated.

"Yeah," the older shrugged. "That was the first time a star come down to earth. And the first time I knew what death was," The girl brought her knees to her stomach. "It's kinda hard to believe in Guardians of children when you've had your childhood ripped away."

"They're real!" Jamie blurted. Horror was clouding his face. "I know that they are, and if they knew what happened-"

"Kid," she cut him off gently, "Calm down. It's okay, really. Kids go missing all the time. What's one more?"

Even as she assured her cousin that she didn't blame his Guardians she knew she was lying.

_Never thought I'd resent the Easter Bunny. _


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5.**

* * *

**A family is a risky venture, because the greater the love, the greater the loss... That's the trade-off. But I'll take it all. **

**-Brad Pitt**

* * *

"I'm Catherine, Jamie's cousin."

For just an instance something flashed in the woman's eyes, pain, hope, desolation, before they all vanished behind a smile so falsely warm it almost burned. Catherine felt her heart lurch in her chest while she shook her mother's hand.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Pippa's mother."

Pippa's, not Catherine.

_Pippa, Piper Anne Braums. _

_Catherine Grace Jordan._

Her smile felt brittle. "It's nice to meet you. Jamie needs to be back by ten, I'll be back for him around then?"

Sophia nodded, drawing back into the house. "It was nice meeting you," she said just before shutting the door.

Catherine watched the wood before turned around. Her mother was a terrible liar.

She didn't even realize she was crying until she couldn't see anymore, her vision swimming with salt water. The girl scoffed at herself, self-deprecating laugh leaving her lips while she walked away from the achingly familiar house. She wiped her eyes even if it was futile. She had imagined talking to her mother again for years, had held onto the memories of piano keys and warm arms wrapped around her. All of those had been shattered by the hand shake and tight lie, slipped through just because of her name.

"Cathy," she murmured, turning towards the neighborhood fences. She cast only a half a look around before jumping up, landing gracefully on top of the wooden post. She took a few steps, waving her legs over the side on a mockery of poor balance before she took a running start and leapt into the air, her hands catching a branch of nearest tree. She flipped in, catching the next one with her legs before sliding into the shadows of the foliage, dropping to forest floor.

Her chest ached with the pain of rejection that threatened to choke her. She was still crying, she noted from some far off place. Her feet took her to a clearing where the trees showed scorch marks down to her hips, left over from fourteen years ago. She leaned against the trees, sinking to the ground and curling up there.

"What did you expect?" she asked the wind, "That you would be pulled inside with tears and open arms?" she laughed humorlessly. "Fool. You should just stay away. Less pain for everyone involved."

The world grew colder around her, something she knew but didn't feel.

Her eyes shut, tears threatening to freeze them like that. It had been years since she'd cried, it was only fair that it happened here, where her life had fallen apart so many years ago, where her childhood had been taken and her joy and hope and wonder torn to pieces.

"Malha'ahn tins clochera," she murmured, the first lesson, the most important. _Survival is everything. _

The wind tugged at her hair, frost cracked beside her ear.

The moon shone down on the clearing, lighting the circular marks still painting a target there.

Catherine was left in the shadows, snow settling in her hair.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6. Language warning.**

* * *

**Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge. **

**-Abraham Joshua Heschel**

* * *

They had tried to stay awake, really, putting a valiant effort, but eventually the Sandman had his way and the two Bennet kids were fast asleep, both of them tucked into Catherine's side. The girl, the queen of sleep deprivation, stayed awake. She had promised to give Santa their card, and even if her faith was questionable she always kept her word. Outside the window, through the glass that reflected the lights of the tree, snow drifted in lazy swirls.

Santa Clause.

There was no reason he couldn't exist, god knew she had seen more impossible things than an immortal saint giving presents to kids. Lords of Order and Chaos, angels and demons, Martians, Saturians, and Cataronians, Gods of Apokolips and New Genesis, all impossible, all incredible, all real.

So why not Santa Claus?

A solid thump on the roof and jingle of a bell brought her attention to the ceiling, then the banked fireplace. She held her breath, waiting for a man in bright red suit to come down.

Instead, a small creature in all green dropped clumsily down, pointy hat jingling away.

Catherine stared.

The creature didn't seem to notice her as it made a bee line for the cookies they'd set out on the coffee table. Catherine leaned forwards, letting Sophie and Jamie fall onto the couch. When the creature grabbed one of the cookies she grabbed it by the hat and picked it up to eye level, squinting.

"What the hell are you?" she questioned. Christmas. "And elf?" It was thrashing violently in her grip, a useless endeavor.

The softest hiss of soles on carpet had brown eyes snapping to the side, finding bright red coat and dark black hat, gathered together with a white beard and a red sack. Catherine stared, her mouth falling open.

"Jesus fuck," she said.

The man turned to her, surprise flittering on his face. "You see me?" he asked.

Catherine nodded. A grin lit the mans face, spreading slowly to her. The elf kicked her arm, still getting nothing accomplished.

"Is not often that one your age sees Guardian," he told her, sounding distinctly Russian. That was even more unexpected than his appearance. The girl almost laughed outright, a hysterical one.

"The kid made a good argument on your existence," she tilted her head to her cousin.

Santa, North if Jamie was to be believed, smiled. "They are good children."

"Yeah," Catherine lay her free hand on Sophie's head. "They asked me to give you this," she dropped the elf at last, hardly feeling when it tried to kick her shin, to pick up the card that Jamie had signed as well when he found out what the girls were doing.

North smiled as he took it from her, nodding his thanks. Catherine settled back, pulling her cousins close again while the Guardians spread presents and put up stockings.

"You are Catherine, yes?"

His question surprised her. The girl nodded, tucking her legs under her. "Yeah, Catherine Jordan."

The look he was giving her was one of curiosity and suspicion. "You were not on List for many years."

"Eight," she confirmed. "I was off of earth, and I guess out of your jurisdiction? It sounds longer than it actually was…"

Eight years had killed Cathy, and left Ca'aniore in her place.

"Anyways!" she smiled cheerfully at North, masking the darker thoughts with the ease of many years of practice. "It was nice to see you, thank you for doing everything for the kids."

North puffed up, his smile wide. "Bringing joy to children is life's work, is no trouble."

Catherine laughed quietly, making sure not to wake her cousins. "Have a nice night," she called, watching the man vanish up the chimney. The elf scrambled after him.

Outside of the window she caught a flash of white and blue.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7.**

* * *

**I believe in Father Frost. But not too deeply. But anyway, you know, I'm not one of those people who are able to tell the kids that Father Frost does not exist. **

**-Dmitry Medvedev**

* * *

On Christmas morning Catherine woke up on the couch after one of the lightest dreams she'd had in years, feeling warm and comfortable with the kids pressed in on either side of her.

Under the tree gifts shimmered and wrapping tempted the urge to tear. Hal could be heard stirring down the hall, Marie was already in the bathroom, getting ready for the day.

Through the window Catherine could see a boy her age peaking in, snowy hair contrasting the blue of his jacket. A Shepard's crook was tucked against his shoulder. Blue eyes were locked on the children that were practically in her lap. Catherine caught his eyes with hers, offering a smile and watching surprise flit across his face.

So that was Jack Frost.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8. Dark one.**

* * *

**Family is not an important thing. It's everything.**

**-Michael J. Fox**

* * *

It was just after new year's when it happened.

Catherine had been talking on the phone in the kitchen while Jamie and Sophie played in the snow outside when a bright light streaked across the sky, too big to be very far away and so familiar Catherine dropped the phone then and there. She could see it pass the trees, slow enough to stop. To land.

She sprinted out the door.

Jamie was in the back yard, putting the finishing touches on a snow horse. Abby was running around him, yapping rapidly, desperately. Sophie was nowhere to be seen.

"Jamie!"

The tone of her voice, the closest it had ever been to frightened, froze him in his tracks.

"Where's your sister?"

The boy looked around, confusion, then horror, crossing his face. "She was just here! Just now, I saw here, she was making a snow man, I thought-"

"Go inside," Catherine ordered sharply. "Take the dog and get inside, right now. Call the police."

Jamie looked small and scared when he looked up at her. "What's wrong? Where's Sophie?"

"Hopefully, chasing snowflakes," Catherine's mouth was pulled into a grim line. "Now go."

She didn't waste any more time before she was sprinting into the woods.

A foreign sensation, fear, touched her heart and lifted her feet, pushing the girl to run faster through the darkness. She hadn't charged her ring, she hadn't thought she'd needed to. It was vacation. She was a fool.

A fool that knew exactly where she was going.

"Please," she found herself murmuring, the closest thing she'd ever gotten to a prayer. "Let her be afraid. Let her run from them."

A shadow moved in the corner of her eye.

A scream echoed close ahead.

Trees broke, as did the jaw underneath her fist. The owner of the newly broken bone fell back, dropping his captive onto the hard ground below. Catherine didn't stop, already driving her heel into the throat of another before she was tackled from the side. Something sharp sunk into her side.

She ignored it, bringing her elbow around to drive the air out of the assailant's lungs. She was back on her feet in a second, lunging towards a still unmarked individual. This eyes burst around her thumbs when she drove them into the sockets, leaving her coming away with bloody hands and them screaming on the ground.

That was four. These traveled in ten.

She was hit from behind and the side at once. A crack marked the breaking of her rib. She'd forgotten the superhuman strength these people possessed.

She hit the ground thrashing. Her teeth dug into flesh that tasted of dirt and mildew before the flavor was overrun with a ghost of copper in cherry.

So this one had once been human.

She found herself released, rolling to her feet. A hand connected with her shoulder before she caught it, twisting the attached arm and slamming the owner into the ground below her. Snarling more animal than human she spat, "Terran tins normach Lo'ordah." _Humans are not prey_. "Dukken tins normach Cataronian." _We are not Cataronians._

"Onus Noch Ma'atroan," her captive told her, "tins notrich Lo'ordah."

_Nameless ones are always prey. _

"Dukken Ma'atroan Ca'aniore."

There was dead silence around the clearing. She stood, leaving the startled alien on the ground. She brought up her hand, displaying the dimly glowing emerald on her finger. "Terran tins normach Lo'ordah. Duk tins normach volchemin Terran. Korveck!"

This time they listened. Obeyed. A knife was taken to the blinded ones throat, putting him out of the misery of being useless, of being a Bordlech. A Cripple. No Cataronian who was would be allowed to live. They would be a burden on their family, their Lemyoire.

"Korveck," the leader, a Cataronian with the remnants of what had once been violet hair still clinging to her skull said, wide eyes locked on Catherine with pupils as wide as the sclera.

"Korveck," she replied, more civil this time. "Goodbye."

The group of nine now living aliens picked themselves up, some still struggling to regulate their breathing before making their way back to the cone shaped ship they had come from. Catherine waited until they were gone before sinking to the forest floor, eyes on the charred marks of the trees and the target in the earth. She had finally made her decision.

Duk tins normach volchemin Terran. _You are not welcome here._

Catherine placed her hand on her side, bringing it back to find it smeared in dark crimson. The shank that had been dug into the muscle lay on the ground a few feet away for reasons she did not know.

"Sophie?" she called into the air. It was too still, too silent, to be natural. It was the silence of fear and death.

"She ran when the fight began."

Catherine's head snapped to the side. A man stood there, cloaked in black fabric. A beak of a nose rested under dark eyes, set into sunken grey skin.

It didn't take any time at all for her to place a name to the face.

"Pitch Black."

There wasn't so much as a hint of surprise on his face. Only tiredness. He looked thin, gaunt, and frankly underfed. "So, you do know of me."

"Ah," she grunted when she tried to sit up. "Okay, that's not happening." Her side was on fire. Blood was leaking out quickly, too fast. It was too low to be her liver, had to be her intestines. "Fucking hell."

"You're going to die," from him is sounded less like a threat and more like and observation.

Catherine shrugged, a humorless laugh passing her lips. "It's been a long time coming."

His eyes narrowed. "You aren't afraid." It was an accusation.

"What do I have to fear? Death? It's not the worst thing in the world that could happen. Besides, I've done my part, I got my family out of this. I'm not afraid," her eyes drifted over the man's shoulder.

"Honestly, the last time I was truly afraid was ten years ago. That isn't going to change now."

Pitch watcher her, his eyes narrowed in irritation and something she couldn't quite read. From far off sirens wailed.

"It seems you might not die yet."

This time her laugh was hysterical.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9.**

* * *

**Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope, renewal, and new life. Janine di Giovanni**

* * *

"Are you sure he won't mind?" Catherine found herself asking again. Sophie was perched on her hip, Jamie was on her left side. North was in front of them as well as Jack, who had just finished frosting off the last of the colder regions of the world.

"Of course not. Bunny will love the help," North assured her.

Catherine shrugged her shoulders, standing behind the man. "Alright, so long as he knows it wasn't my idea."

A snow globe was an interesting way to travel, not unlike Zeta or Boom Tubes. When the light cleared from her vision Catherine found herself staring in awe around her. Green and bright pastels were all over the place, eggs were walking and a stream of color passed them by.

It was only instinct that had her ripping Jamie to the ground with her when she threw herself down. Something flew across her head, barely missing the back of her braid. There was a yelp from behind her.

Jack had been hit.

Catherine lifted her head up to see the largest rabbit she had ever been exposed to hop over, holding a boomerang threateningly. The girl stared up at him.

"Well," she said, sitting up, "This isn't the weirdest thing to ever happen to me."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10.**

* * *

**There is not quote to fit this, so make one up yourself. **

**-Laura Quinn**

* * *

"You're going to freeze the eggs!" Bunnymund shouted from where he was rushing around, supervising the work of the others.

"Well maybe I should freeze you instead? Seems to me like you could stand to chill out," Jack retorted hotly from where he was trying to guide a few of the protein shells out of a pink river.

Catherine rolled her eyes, holding a paint brush out to Sophie. "Boys, stop flirting, we're supposed to be making eggs, not cracking them. "

The horror on both faces at the thought of flirting had both her and North cracking up. While Jamie screwed up his face in disgust. Catherine turned back to the eggs, ignoring the denials behind her.

A pile of multicolored eggs rested in the grass beside her, each one sporting a design from the emotional spectrum. Violet, blue, green, and indigo. She forwent the yellow and red, finding fear and rage inappropriate for a holiday that was dedicated to hope.

"Walker would have a field day with this," she commented off handedly, shooing a few eggs off to her cousin.

"Walker?" the oversized rabbit repeated, animosity falling from his voice.

Catherine nodded. "Yeah, Saint Walker. He was a priest on, shoot what's it called? Astomina? Astonia! Yeah, Astonia. It's a planet a few light years from here. A few years back its sun started expanding and was going to destroy the planet. Walker calmed his people down and gave them hope for the future. Because of this he was chosen to be a member of the Blue Lantern Corps and used its power to save his planet. He's all about hope. He drops by earth sometimes, mostly hangs around Coast and the Green Lanterns there. I've met him before, he's a nice guy. He'd like it here," she explained.

"Blue Lanterns," the bunny repeated, sounding somewhat dubious. Catherine crossed her legs and gestured to the eggs she'd painted.

"There's lots of lanterns, each color symbolizes a place on the emotional spectrum…"

And so on the lecture went until the Guardians were well versed in space politics.

She didn't notice Jamie giving her suspicious looks.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11.**

* * *

**Every tooth in a man's head is more valuable than a diamond. **

**-Miguel de Cervantes**

* * *

"We don't have any of your teeth!"

Catherine fell right off of Jamie's bed with a startled yelp, her tailbone striking the hard wood painfully. "What the he-eck?" she had to change her words when she remembered Jamie was there.

"Your teeth!" the odd hummingbird woman cried again, yanking her mouth open. Catherine stared wide eyed at the apparent fairy, mouth pried to gape.

"Ooh augh uh ah oh," she tried before pulling herself away, working her jaw before trying again. "You aught to have some," she corrected herself.

"Catherine Grace Jordan, you don't exist," Tooth accused. Catherine laughed a little, her smile half crescent.

"I just wasn't around here when I was loosing teeth. Coast City has pretty close ties with non-terran life, I spent a few years in space when I was a kid. I think there was only one tooth I actually lost when I was here."

"You've been to space?" Jamie gasped at her, matched by Tooth's rapid blinks.

Catherine flashed him a grin before pulling her necklace out of her shirt, displaying the green ring for him.

"I run space."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12.**

* * *

**Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet.**

**-Vietnamese Proverb**

* * *

"Is that it?" Jamie asked, eyes on the sphere below them. Blue and green painted against the darkness of empty space. The moon crouched along the horizon, shining down on the cresent of shadow that the sun at their back didn't reach.

"Yeah. Earth," Catherine watched the planet turn under them, oceans and continents, lights and people, all across the world.

"It's so big. You don't really realize it when you're down there, but from up here…"

"It my favorite," Catherine confided. "I've got 115 planets in my sector, and I've seen at least twenty three times that many. Out of all of them though, this is the one I like best is this one. It's, well, it's home. And all the people on it are mine."

Jamie looked down at the earth before looking back up at his cousin. "Hey Cath?"

"Ah?"

"Can I be a Green Lantern one day?"

The girl looked down at him, head tilting with thought. Jamie had been different ever since the incident with Sophie. He hadn't liked letting her out of his sight. He'd been protective, and when he thought no one was looking he'd been guilty.

"Maybe," she said at last. "We'll see. Why do you want to?"

Jamie's mouth thinned into a line.

"I never want Sophie to be scared again."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

* * *

**The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. **

**H. P. Lovecraft**

* * *

It took her a while to find him again, and when she did she was only a little surprised.

"An orphanage? Isn't that a little cruel?" she found herself teased. Her feet dangled from the roof of the building across the street from the children's home. The shadows beside her shifted, letting Pitch form to loom above her.

"I'm the boogeyman," he reminded her, "Cruelty is part of my job."

"I guess so," Catherine lay back on the roof, locking her hands behind her head and turning her eyes to the being beside her. "How scared do you have them?"

Irritation flashed across his face, answering her question.

Catherine smiled. "Dude, this is Coast City, the City of Ghosts and the City Without Fear. You're not going to get much here. Gotham, Star, even Central would probably do you more good."

Instead of replying Pitch asked, "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to thank you. "

His eye brows nearly vanished in his hair line. "Excuse me?"

Catherine looked to the stars. "When the Cataronians came they had Sophie. You made her afraid of them, didn't you?"

Slowly, Pitch nodded. "Yes."

"If she hadn't been I wouldn't have been able to find them, and she would be gone. So thank you."

Pitch didn't say anything, and when Catherine looked back he had disappeared. In his place golden sand snaked down from the sky. The Lantern smiled.

Earth had the most interesting people.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14.**

* * *

**Fear doesn't shut you down; it wakes you up **

**― Veronica Roth**

* * *

Jamie was yelling for reasons Catherine couldn't quite understand. She'd just told him that Pitch wasn't the worst thing in the world and now he was shouting at her, something about the Guardians and how Pitch had hurt them and tried to get him and Sophie and all of his friends. Catherine lost her patients after almost five full minutes.

"Jamie Bennett I have had it up to here with you!" she shouted.

It had started because Jamie had been recounting the story of the battle with Pitch to her again, this time with the help of the visiting Jack, North and Bunny, who she had taken to called Aster instead.

The Guardians were tense, staring wide eyed at her. She had never yelled around them. Not once. She had also never looked so dark than right then, her face shadowed with thought.

"Hope, Wonder, Fun, those are all important, yes, but I learned a lesson a long time ago that I pray you never have to know," she stared down at her cousin, showing no emotion to him.

"A lesson?" he asked wearily. He seemed almost afraid of her.

"Terror is the most important thing that a human being can feel. When you find a place where joy and optimism aren't enough, when memories and dreams bring only pain, it's fear that keeps you alive."

When she turned on her heel to storm away she didn't see the horror or the guilt on the Guardians faces, or the shine of eyes in the corner of the room.


End file.
